ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) – Dominic James scored a career-high 29 points and Steve Novak added 24 to lead Marquette to a 82-79 win over DePaul on Tuesday night. Marquette (13-5, 3-2 Big East) was able to hold off a furious Blue Demons rally. DePaul (8-8, 1-4) was able to cut a 24-point deficit to two points inside a minute left. Trailing 72-59, DePaul outscored Marquette 7-2 in a three-minute span to get within 74-66 on a Sammy Mejia 3 with 3:55 left in the game. Mejia banked in a 3 with 1:03 left to close it within 76-72. He then came back with another basket for DePaul, cutting the lead to 78-74 with 34.3 left. DePaul put Dan Fitzgerald on the line, who missed both free throws. Draelon Burns got fouled for DePaul and made two free throws to cut it to 78-76 with 21.4 left, but Novak followed with a pair of free throws. Burns got fouled again and hit one of two from the line, and Jamil Lott iced it with two free throws for Marquette.

James and Novak got hot quick. James finished an alley-oop to give Marquette a 19-6 lead, then he hit a 3 that made it 25-10 midway through the first half. Novak piled it on with another 3 to extend the lead to 30-12. James hit his second 3-pointer of the half to give Marquette its largest lead of the game at 46-22. DePaul trailed 49-30 at the half.

Marquette was 10-for-12 from 3-point range in the first half as a team and shot 64.3 percent overall. Jerel McNeal finished with 11 points and seven assists for Marquette, and Joe Chapman had 11 points. Mejia finished with 24 points for DePaul, and Burns added 22. DePaul played without starting forward Wilson Chandler, who was suspended for violating a team policy. He is the team's leading rebounder.